Latest News

How to Achieve True Engagement with Social Media

When it comes to social media analytics, engagement is super
important. But what does engagement actually mean? And are social media
follower counts really important?

Let's face it: Metrics for social media success can be intimidating.
They prove the efforts of a company or individual matter, but between
tweeting, Facebooking, putting out fires, sending puppy photos, and
giving your followers all the attention and love they need, metrics are
often second thoughts. It's simple to report follower numbers. It's
exciting to see people add your brand on social media, and it can be
downright fun to rise above your competitors or meet benchmarks. But are
followers actually a helpful metric on their own?
Followers are indeed a piece of the analytics puzzle. They’re a solid
number to track on a spreadsheet or tell an inquisitive co-worker, an
investor interested in a brand’s reach, or a family member who can't
quite believe what you do for a living.

So what happens if follower growth is a brand’s main focus and the
driver of both KPIs and other goals? Take a deep breath: It's time to
change the conversation.

Most businesses—even successful ones on social media—have fewer
followers than you'd think. We can't all be President Obama or social
media celebrities with millions of followers. The average business’s
follower count—from small shops to household names—isn't that large.

Brands that hover in these ranges can have better and deeper
conversations with their communities than brands who speak to millions.
It's better to cultivate a strong audience and grow it slowly than flash
a large number of followers when no one's listening.

Refresh Your Social Media Goals

The first stab at aligning social media goals with business goals can
be intimidating or feel awkward. Thankfully, it’s not the same as
shoving a square peg into a round hole. Each business has unique goals
and while some may track the same metrics as others, they aren't
necessarily going to focus on similar insights from those metrics. Let's
take a look at some common online business goals and how the social
media team may help achieve these:

It's easier to get inspired by possible achievements for the company
by chatting with colleagues about their needs and ways social media can
help.

Digging Into the Meaning of Engagement

At its simplest, engagement is any action followers have with a brand
or individual on social media. There are three main categories of
engagement: conversation, amplification, and applause. Tracking these
can be daunting, especially in the case of a chatty bunch of followers.
However, it's equally important to know how to track this and why it's
important.

Starting (and Maintaining) the Conversation

Getting replies to your content and replying to the content of others
is the basis of any social network. For most brands, increasing the
conversation rate is a positive thing. It means reaching more followers
or even expanding beyond that audience. Comments harbour the loudest
feedback or can have the most fun, showing off what makes a brand
unique. If a brand’s competitors aren’t responding, filling that
response void in a relevant manner can pull in an additional audience
already interested in that industry.
Quick tips for great social conversations:

Always have empathy for the customer's situation.

Reply in a timely manner. Most conversations on social media are dead after a few hours.

Have some fun. Show a person you care by making a joke or sending them a photo of a cute animal they like.

If a comment makes you upset, run your response by a colleague before publishing.

Strong emotions? Bring the conversation into email or another more private channel.

Be sensitive to what's happening in your industry niche, your location, or globally.

Thank your community for their feedback, and for recognizing and recommending you.

Most of the time, don't poke the trolls. But know when your community needs to hear you address what's happening.

Can’t Stop the Signal: Amplification

Compelling content is shared around the globe quickly via social
media. Most brands are eager to get their content out there and
promoted. Brands are hungry for more exposure, but it can take work to
discover what constitutes as instant shareable content. It can be
depressing to find there's no actual correlation between social shares and traffic
to your site. However, people who read 25 percent of said content are
more likely to share it. And even if people don't read it like they
should, amplification can still bolster brand awareness and
serendipitous opportunities.
Quick tips for great amplification:

Instead of just sharing the content's title, find a powerful quote from the piece.

Make sure you're not just sharing your own content. Some social
media managers live by the “20 percent about you, 80 percent about
others” rule. This isn't true for every brand, so figure out what works
for you.

Get a customized URL for shortened links. This can be a strong
branding signal on Twitter. For example, the Huffington Post uses
huff.to.

Say something with your content and stand for something in your industry.

Use a tool like Rival IQ to find what's working for your competitors, and share the same or similar content.

Earning the Audience’s Applause

The most passive actions on social media—applause—is the community
saying it cares. But a vote for what you're sharing can signal to others
that you're an authority on the topic. On Facebook, likes help directly
by getting posts seen by more people. On Twitter, a favourite may be a
high five or a signal via IFTTT
to save the link to Pocket, Feedly, or another tool for later reading.
On Google Plus, the +1 helps cater to personalized search results.
Quick tips for great applause:

Meaningful shares with purpose get your brand all the high fives.

Say and share something people want to remember later.

Use images that elicit strong emotions: anger, fear, happiness, disgust, surprise, nostalgia, and sadness. Photos get 53 percent more likes on Facebook than other types of posts.

Smartly add a hashtag or two for discovery on networks like Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Mention others, especially when sharing content or boosting partnerships. Your community will take note.

Show off what it looks and feels like behind the scenes at your brand.

Don't be afraid to humbly mention your brand's accomplishments and major announcements. You may see fist bumps all around.

Give applause to others and spread that network of support.

Engagement Rates: It’s All Relative

While you shouldn't measure success by the number of followers you
have, when you really get the hang of social media, you're likely to get
more followers. Social media marketers should always track true organic
follower growth because it makes metrics richer.
It’s easy to calculate relative engagement with conversation,
amplification, and applause rates on each network. Take the rate and
divide it by followers per 1,000. (If you're lucky enough to run a large
account, this number can be 10,000 or even 100,000.) For instance, if
there are 14,000 Twitter followers, like an average account, divide by
14.
So why is this relative engagement rate so important? It shows that
as a company grows its number of followers, no one is left behind and
the brand still cares enough to stay part of the conversation. Think of
social accounts like inviting people over for a party. The first week,
you throw a party with 10 people and you only talked to five of them.
You'd have a relative engagement rate of 50 percent. You had so much fun
that next week, you decided to invite 20 people. In order to maintain
the same engagement rate, you'd need to converse with 10 of them. This
is also a great way to increase engagement with an audience that's
already engaged. Talk to 15 people at that party instead of just 10.

What about Sales and Conversions?

Truth be told, social media accounts do not typically account for
direct sales. Most traffic analytics are still done by last click, and
social media is rarely the last click. Are there exceptions to that?
Definitely. Companies like Groupon or flash deal sites like Woot drive
on impulse, limited call-to-actions. But for most of us, conversions
happen more slowly. It's important to work with your larger teams to
figure out where social media fits into the buying cycle.
For most companies, it's to get customers into the top of the sales
funnel. It's about brand awareness or even driving traffic, which may
not get the buy click back to your site. Team up with colleagues focused
on SEO or content and make organic traffic goals.
Conversions aren't always about sales anyway. Step back and consider
that the conversion for social media may be someone signing up for an
email newsletter, filling out a lead generation form, taking a survey,
or just reading important news about your brand.

Report Anything of Importance to Your Brand

Every industry and every company is different. It's important to
report what matters to others in your company, not just what shows how
awesome social media is. Does your product team look for feedback and
feature requests? Collect it on social. Do you put on in-person events?
Report on attendance and sentiment and show off photos and video. Do you
need to hire more social media people to your team? Share how many
posts, including replies, you made or in-depth conversations you had.
Need some company morale boosting? Show off what your community is
saying and, perhaps, what they're sending to you.

Learn to Love Your Metrics

Metrics can be a hard thing to love, even if they provide exciting
insights. But by tracking the right type of metrics for social media and
things that matter for your brand, you may find them a little more
exciting.
Metrics shouldn't be static. A brand can change and evolve them as
social networks change and grow (who knows what we'll be posting on in
2020) and as your brand's goals change. Depending on the business, those
larger company objectives could change every month or quarter. You'll
need to pivot to meet them. Not to mention, as you dive in, you'll
figure out what you're comfortable with and learn all about how to
present social media analytics that work for your brand.

About Social Songbird

Keeping you up to date on social media, digital marketing, apps, news & reviews.
Social media, and digital marketing as a whole, are rapidly and constantly changing, adapting to new developments at an ever increasing rate. Just keeping up to date can be a nightmare.
Our team of writers know their field, and keep an ear to the ground. We aim to keep you informed of all recent developments in the online world, and teach you a little something along the way.
So whether you just want to stay connected, or gain some knowledge for yourself, the Social Songbird will keep on singing!
More articles are posted every day so keep checking back!
Join the discussion on Twitter - #SocialSongbird
Or contact us directly - @SongbirdWriters

Counterterrorism efforts on social media A new report by the Woodrow Wilson Centre’s Gabriel Weimann suggests that terrorists are using s...

Meet The Team

Sam Bonson - Editor/Content Writer

Sam is an aspiring novelist with a passion for fantasy and crime thrillers. Currently working as Editor of Social Songbird, he hopes to one day drop that 'aspiring' prefix. Follow him @Songbird_Sam

Laura Sewell - Content Writer

An aspiring journalist, Laura is our Content Writer. Pop-punk gig-goer and drag queen enthusiast, Laura is working her way into the industry with a love of writing about anything and everything in tow. Find her daily musings on twitter @Songbird_Lauras

Dan Swann - Graphic Designer

Dan has a hard earned degree in Graphic design and a love for technology. He thrives on science fiction films and computer games and often delves into astronomy. He’ll also one day finish reading all of Einstein’s famous papers. Follow him @DanAtSMF!doctype>